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Maurer/Stier 2015-16 (Bi)Annual Lettersmaurer1@swarthmore.edu franstier@comcast.netleon.maurer@gmail.com ajmaurer89@gmail.com206 Benjamin West AveSwarthmore PA 19081-1421January 10, 2017Fran’s PartI never got a chance to send last year’sAnnual, so I’m intercalating 2016 sectionswith 2015’s. There’s very little aboutSteve in this section, so he can tell hisown story his own way in the next section.Executive summary 2015: Momovercame another bout of C diff and a fallin Sept and is back to livingindependently, Leon is in his 8th year ofgrad school and Genia is a post-Doc atNorth Carolina State, Aaron finished hisMasters in Stat and took a job as a datascientist at Airbnb in SF, where he liveswith Alex. We spent 10 days in Provencethis spring, which was lovely, but sincethen Steve’s Parkinson’s has progressed.Work and volunteering continue for me,and I plan to retire in September of 2016.Executive summary 2016: Mom well allyear. Leon defended his dissertation inAugust and got a job at Sandia NationalLabs (in Albuquerque). Alex was acceptedto a slew of law schools, and chose NYU.Aaron and Alex are engaged!!! Franretired: continues volunteer gigs andstruggling w/ Hebrew. Fran & Steve tourcontinuing care retirement communities(less scenic than Provence).Mom 2015: Indomitable. She had anavulsion fracture in her foot in April,another bout of C diff. in May (but stayedout of the hospital). She fell and cut herknee open in September (Rosh Hashanahin the hospital was very cute, withmultiple rabbis going from room to roomto be sure that all the Jewish patients hada chance to hear the shofar). The cut gotinfected (which took her back to thehospital, so she and I spent Yom Kippurin the ER). She went back to rehab at TheAmsterdam (this was just after the Pope’svisit) and by October she was back in herapartment.Mom 2016: She continues attendingbook groups, concerts and plays, PT (nowacross the street), but gets tired moreeasily. We discovered The Comma Queenand her (the Queen’s, that is) Confessions.We saw Madame Butterfly at the Met(lovely). Mom jokes about how my sistersand I swoop in for visits, turn theapartment upside-down with our projects,and leave her exhausted. Maybe she’s notentirely joking.Leon 2015: and Genya visited Costa Ricain January (pix here). Leon says the highpoint of his year was petting a squirrelmonkey. From GenyaLeon and I made some friends here. Letme introduce you to coati and lizzyfriends. To be honest, both of themwere not very altruistic friends. Coati
Maurer/Stier BiAnnual, 2015-16lost any interest in a friendship as soonas it realized we had no more bananas.But we think it's ok. Leon also gotreally close with a Mr. Toucan but theInternet connection here doesn't let metell you about this wonderfulrelationship.Today we hope to meet somehummingbirds and maybe a quetzal.It's a bird of the trogon order which isendangered and endemic to CR. A malequetzal has a really long pretty tail toshow off. Males always like to show off,even some tall, dark, and handsomeones, but it's a different story which Iwill tell you next time when some tall,dark, and handsome doesn't look at myscreen.They missed their connection in FtLauderdale and their trip home took themflying FLL- DTW- MDW, subway MDW OHR to get luggage, and then bus toMadison.3/5/2015: Received the followingfrom Genia, who went XC skiinglast weekend w/ L & her lab-group,and photographed a troupe of flyingsquirrels that live on the UWcampus (luring them in w/ PB).The only flying squirrel I ever sawbefore was Rocky.Hi Fran and Steve,Here are flying squirrels. Leon is goingto claim that they don't exist. Don'ttrust him; he is just jealous. Indeed,only porcupines don't exist, but allother creatures do. [This week wewent up north with my lab, andeverybody saw a porcupine, but notLeon and me. So I think thesecreatures were just made up bypeople. Really, it's usually describedas a fur ball on a tree. This is highlyunrealistic because fur balls can'tclimb a tree. Oh, I forgot to say. Thispage 2weekend I found a barred owl who washunted by a bobcat while eating aflying squirrel. My mentor and I thinkit's supercool. Well, to be precise, Ifound only some feathers of an owland a skull of a flying squirrels. Butyou can't ask too much, can't you?Leon and I had a disagreement abouthow to transport these preciousfindings home. Leon didn't want todonate me his sandwich bag. He is allabout food. Did you feed him as a kid?Ok, I got distracted. What I wastalking about? Oh, the next day waseven better, as we found a frozenshort-tailed shrew. It was after Leonleft, so he is going to claim shrewdon't exist. Don't trust him. He is justjealous. This shrew is one of fewshrew species which have poisonousglands, that's why it's especially neat.Yours,GenyaGenya published a paper on the impact ofthe USSR’s collapse on wildlife, which gother interviewed on BBC. (She also madethe December issue of NationalGeographic)Leon tried deer hunting10/10/2015: Leon texted me a picture of a(very) dead looking deer. I texted back “Youkilled Bambi’s Mommy?” He said yes,he’d shot it, and no, her teats had no milkin them.I texted a picture of the dead deer to Rose,who had returned from shul (synagogue)last week to find 3 deer in her yard,munching on her garden. They wereunmoved by yells & honks, eventuallywalked off.Rose replied:“When can he come to Bethesda? I have atleast three that are dedicated to ruining mycrops. Pooping on my lawn. Disturbing mytranquility. Forget Bambi. Lyme disease.
Maurer/Stier BiAnnual, 2015-16Ticks. Pestilence. Mazel tov. Very proud ofLeon. My hero. Was he upset?”Leon continues forward on research – onepaper published in March, one to beresubmitted this week; and has startedjob hunting. He and Genya spent lastweek in northern Wisconsin cross-countryskiing. He did 100 km; she did 120km.Leon 2016: Genia drove up from NorthCarolina for seder, arriving around 10 PMshe and L were soon deep in conversationwith A2 and Beth and Sofia. I heard Aaronsummarizing the Civil War and Sherman’sMarch to the Sea. I’m told there was a lotof conversation about bunnies, esp somethat live only on volcanoes in Mexico, andlook like fuzzy eggs with ears (this fromGenia, of course).Leon got the Physics Dept’s Van Vleck andTA prizes – Genia and I both got to attendthe Department Banquet in May and kvell– and defended in August. He got a job atSandia National Lab (in Albuquerque) anddrove his neon-yellow Honda Fit fromMadison to NM, via Sioux Falls SD, RapidCity SD, Missoula MT, Grand Teton,Moab, and Mesa Verde, with travel-logentries on Facebook. As I write, he &Genia are in Cuba, at Playa Larga becauseof UNESCO site Zapata Nature Reserve: insearch of the smallest bird of the world,and the Cuban trogon.Aaron 2015: slogged through two morequarters of classes at U Chicago (withsemester breaks in San Francisco withAlex [pix of them at a Spinsters of SF ballhere]), and wrote his Masters project (onsparse regression) over the summer.He juggled interviews & offers with abunch of SF and Silicon Valley companies(one bought carbon offsets for his flightfrom Chicago to SF), and accepted a jobpage 3with Airbnb (locally famous for its overthe-top headquarters, also, per Aaron,very respectable house-cured nova). Hedrove his aged Hyundai out west,following the Oregon Trail, with a stop atthe site of Teapot Dome (there was a smallmuseum devoted to the scandal). Hepassed a place where the trail passed overa limestone deposit and you could still seethe deep ruts.They found an apartment together andadopted a dogAaron & Alex have a dog, a year old, brown,King Charles Spaniel mix named Agrippa(chosen because they wanted a namestarting w/ A and Agrippa had morenickname possibilities than Achilles).Agrippa goes to work w/ A & enjoysAirBnB’s house-made dog treats, or spendsthe day home w/ Alex, when she worksfrom home. Mom giggled some at the ideaof them calling “here Agrippa, here,Agrippa”.Aaron 2016: Aaron and Alex vacationedin Mexico at the end of 2015 – it was greatto visit SF in January 2016 and hearabout it.We met Aaron & Alex at the Vega, aneighborhood restaurant for them, and theytold us about their vacation in Mexico. Alexhad done a lot of reading on pre-Colombiancivilizations – I hadn’t realized how earlythe Maya Classic period ended. They knewa LOT about the sites they’d visited.Neither had much Spanish, so they hadtrouble in Merida, not knowing a coloniawas a neighborhood. They drove aroundMerida, seeing lots of ruins. They alsopicked up a lot of info about Benito Juarez,who of course I’d never heard of (he was4’6” and the Mexican Abe Lincoln, perAaron).
Maurer/Stier BiAnnual, 2015-16Unfortunately, in August Agrippa escapedfrom the yard of a dog-sitter.Late Friday night, Aaron emailed that thedog-sitter (from Rover.com, an airbnb fordogs; the sitter had good reviews) had lostAgrippa and he (Aaron) would stay in SF torespond to any answers to the Craigslistpost he’d put up & search for him (ratherthan come East for Steve’s birthday). (Alexwas still in Colombia, returning lateSunday). Aaron, Alex’s sister & fatherspent Saturday looking for Agrippa. Theyfound him by the side of the road; he’d beenhit by a car. They were all terribly upset, ofcourse, as were we. Agrippa was such asweet little guy.Alex was accepted at a bunch of lawschools, chose NYU, and started inSeptember.In October, Aaron proposed to Alex on topof Giant Ledge & Panther Mt, in theCatskills – lovely foliage & spectacularviews. We’re very excited and happy.Steve 2015: It was a shock to see Steveafter he returned from MathPath, he wasso worn-out and thin – he’d prop himselfup in the corners of the sofa and sleep.8/10/2015: Steve still bent over –walks leaning heavily on his cane. Ifuss at him to demand an orthopedistappt (his internist doesn’t think it willhelp – said to wait and see what thephys therapists think tomorrow), andfind a stand-in neurologist (hisParkinson’s Dr. is on vacation). If hetries to stand up straight, he’s short ofbreath.He continues doing a lot of homemaintenance10/4/2015: The camel crickets areback; S has a glue-trap by the stove,which has caught many. Steve took abrick down into the basement, to standon (in his floppy black galoshes) andpage 4change light bulbs. He goes down andup the basement stairs on his handsand knees. He was very happy today –he’d finally found a place to use thecompact florescent bulb I got as awedding favor at Nancy London’swedding (how many years ago? 12?).It was longer than most bulbs;wouldn’t fit in other receptacles.Mice are moving indoors, as theyalways do at the first cold weather. Sheaded out to get more poison andmore glue traps.Steve 2016: In February, a bald eagle(First Lady) laid two eggs in a tulip poplarat the US National Arboretum, and Stevewas mesmerized by the live feed from thewebcam.The DC eagle cam has become part ofSteve’s dinner table conversation. He wastalking about the Mommy bird feeding thefuzzy babies tonight -- how the old fishcarcasses stay in the nest and attract flies.How the Mommy bird tears off pieces of fishand the baby birds reach over for it, untilthe baby birds are full and collapse in alittle heap of grey fuzz.Although we thought we’d kept up withrepairs, the house needs many fixes beforewe can sell it. Contractors have trimmedand cut down trees, put in new windows,we’ve gotten bids on basement drainageand bamboo containment, and that’s justa start. Every step entails long dinnertable discussions.We celebrated Steve’s 70th birthday inAugust with a family party. After everyonehad gone, we walked around the block. Atthe corner of Garrett and Benjamin West,Steve sat on his rollator and looked downthe street, saying “It’s a pretty street.We’ve had a pretty good life in our house”.
Maurer/Stier BiAnnual, 2015-16I had to agree, with a large lump in mythroat.Work 2015: We (the ex-Japan valuationteam) were transferred to a new unit; ourrole there wasn’t always clear.1/21/2015: Work continues v. slow. Iworried aloud to Aaron who said whyshould I care? I should be cuttingdown on work effort, in order toasymptotically approach 0 byretirement.Our company’s calculations of EmbeddedValue generated spurts of very mechanicalwork – at one point, I started making jokesabout picking oakum2/8/2015: X (in charge of calculatingEmbedded Value for Japan) had meand Y (in our role as auxiliarymunchkins) generating worksheets –something like 120-150, in sets of 12.(so he’d create the “base” worksheet,and we’d make copy after copy,bringing in liability projections fromdifferent directories, each setcorresponding to an asset portfolio).Then, Friday and Sat, he foundmistakes in the base worksheets, so wehad to go back twice through thecopies correcting each worksheet.All this is due tonight. X is worn to afrazzle. I spent Saturday (as did Y)going through the 120-150 (I’ve lostcount) worksheets making corrections,pretending I’m a macro. But of courseI’m not a macro, so prone to let mymind wander and lose track of where Iam.My only consolation was making little“summary” worksheets using the“indirect” function in Excel, thatsummarized where we’d brought in theliability info from, to be sure we’d goneto the right place.page 5Coordinating with our Japanesecolleagues required 45 min “huddles” at 8PM every weeknight. I tended to put myphone on mute & speakerphone, halflisten for my name, and half play withgenealogy on Ancestry.com. (A recent NYTarticle detailed other conference-callmultitasking solutions)Our office was redesigned to corporatestandards, to promote AUTHENTICITY,COLLABORATION, TRANSPARENCY,CONNECTIVITY, AGILITY, HEALTH,SHARING, and INSPIRATION, with openworkspaces for the many and glassfronted interior offices for the fortunatefew (I was among the fortunate). The glassfronts of our offices have a design derivedfrom the zig zag on Charlie Brown’s t-shirt(since he’s our corporate mascot).Work 2016: I counted down remainingworkdays (thanks to the NETWORKDAYSfunction in Excel) to retirement onSeptember 9th (just before my 66thbirthday, 66 being normal retirement agefor Social Security for my birth cohort).Our department Admin Assistant made aslide show of actuarial department’sorganization charts for the 16 years I waswith the company – it was funny to realizehow much those boxes and lines hadmattered to me.I loved actuarial work – staring atfinancials till the numbers told a story. Iloved travel – I’ll never forget seeing the13th century Daibutsu in Kamakura.Experience studies -- the driest, mosttechnical assignment (and the one where Iwas most upset about the boxes and linesof the org chart) had such a wonderfulteam.
Maurer/Stier BiAnnual, 2015-16Travel 2015: Steve & I visited Chicagoand Madison over Presidents’ weekend,Provence in April (click here for pictures &travel-log), and I also visited Leon & Aaronin Chicago to celebrate Aaron’s finishinghis Masters (click here for dinosaurs fromthe Field Museum, here for NW Coastsculpture). In September, we trooped toCambridge to celebrate Mimi’s 90th.Travel 2016: SF in January with Steve,Madison in May and August, Vermont(Mimi’s) in August – so beautiful to see thehills and lake again.Me 2015: I stepped down from being SocAct chair at my synagogue, but continueas Chapter co-chair of Heeding God’s Callto End Gun Violence (HGC). I’ve gotten toknow a couple of the mothers whosechildren were murdered. No one was everarrested for the crimes, so the Moms carryon knowing their sons’ killers are still atlarge. (blog here). In the suburbs, we tryto raise awareness; in Chester, we makesmall donations for funeral costs, try tofind places families can get griefcounselling. Everywhere, we put up tshirt memorials to lives lost, in anychurch/synagogue that will host ourmemorial.Me 2016: Before retiring, I was in a panicthat I wouldn’t have anything to do.I’m stepping back from the HGC chapter,but have gotten involved with writingviolence-prevention grants for a couple ofChester organizations to make counselingmore available. Chester has the highestmurder rate of any city in the US. Therisk that a 15 year old boy in Chester willbe murdered before reaching age 35 isabout 1 in 12. Aaron points out that theyoung men at risk aren’t likely to behelped much by being preached at by anpage 6old, white lady from the suburbs, but I’mgood at writing grant-application verbiage.Chester has few behavioral-healthresources serving children – reaching themain provider in the county means taking3 buses. We hope that making accesseasier will help a little.I’m tutoring a lady in fractions, decimals,and percents at the Delaware CountyLiteracy Council. She’s very hard-workingand good to work with. (I hadn’t realizedmost of the arithmetic methods we usewere popularized in Europe by Fibonacciin the 13th century)I’m taking a class in reading BiblicalHebrew – trying to discern the verb formfrom the vowels below the consonants &the dots in the middle of them.Like many of my ilk, I spent November ina funk. Steve worried I’d never emerge.(Did you know there’s a Chrome extensionthat substitutes pictures of kittens forDJT’s face?).Steve & I tour continuing care retirementcommunities. The only Jewish one in ourarea has been taken over (and it hadshortcomings); most of the others havelittle or no Jewish programming. Thereare fancy, for profit ones, plainer nonprofit ones, some accredited, some not.All have websites full of pictures of happy,engaged, active old people. Steve and Ilook up the ratings of the skilled nursingunits on medicare.gov. We argue. So far,we’ve applied to Kendal (founded by theSociety of Friends 40 years ago), about40 min west of Swarthmore; average timeon the wait list is about 2 years.I’m so grateful to have had a job as long asI wanted one, to see Leon’s and Aaron’s
Maurer/Stier BiAnnual, 2015-16lives on such good courses, to get to knowGenya and Alex. I’m grateful to haveSteve with me as we trundle into oursunset years. Wishing you health andpeace in the coming year. .Steve’s PartI wrote my first annual letter in December1973. In the very first paragraph I wrote,"I am starting a tradition; how long it willlast and with what interruptions remainsto be seen." Upon reading this recently forthe first time in years, I was surprised tosee that I was thinking aboutinterruptions, because I soon imaginedthere would never be an interruption. Andyet there was, last year. So something bigmust've happened.What happened was, my Parkinson's gotmuch worse. It slowed me down muchmore so that I was scrambling just tofinish things I was required to do eachday. It was also hard to motivate myself toget started. It was hard to start this yeartoo, and I've taken little pleasure in theoutput. After all it's not a fun story. But Ido regard my annuals is a history of mylife and wish to honestly describe whatfills my time and thoughts these days.Trigger warning: the long-winded reportbelow is sometimes bleak, is self-centered,and has more discussion of bodilyfunctions than is usually consideredappropriate in polite company. Please don'tfeel you have to read it. If you do read it,please remember that I'm not trying tomake anybody feel sorry for me; I'm justtrying to record the facts of my life. Also ifyou do read it you may wonder how Franand I have such different takes on mysituation; Fran above seems to beunaware of the difficulties I highlightbelow. But no, the difference indescription was a deliberate decision byFran and myself to limit discussions of myParkinson's in her part to make it morepage 7pleasant and interesting reading. In factFran is more upset about my conditionthat I am. In January 2015, I was beginning thesecond semester of three years of teachinghalf time before retiring. I had taught aregular load the previous semester so Ihad no courses to teach that spring. Therewas plenty of work to do preparing for anew MathPath location at Lewis and ClarkCollege in Portland Oregon that comingsummer, but not so much work that Icouldn't take a vacation
in the ER). She went back to rehab at The Amsterdam (this was just after the Pope’s visit) and by October she was back in her apartment. Mom 2016: She continues attending book groups, concerts and plays, PT (now across the street), but gets tired more easily. We discovered Th
